A new business support programme has been launched offering a range of business training and support services for the self-employed and small to medium size enterprises (SMEs) in Devon, Plymouth, Somerset and Torbay.

Up to 600 businesses will be supported through the Heart of the South West Growth Hub’s new programme – Thrive.

The programme is part funded by the ERDF and the...

FoodCycle , the charity that aims to make food poverty, loneliness and food waste a thing of the past for every community, is in urgent need of volunteers. This month, FoodCycle will invest in a national recruitment campaign to try to entice more people to join them.

While volunteer roles are open to anyone who has some time to spare, the current drive will particularly target...

The ‘Big Fake Festival South West’ will take place at Escot Estate near Ottery St Mary on three consecutive days from June 3 to 5.

The event has capacity for up to 3,700 revellers and includes onsite camping, catering and family entertainment.

It’s being organised by the Fake Festivals team, which runs festivals all around the country – most of these are 1-day events, but the ‘...

The mystery of disappearing fish at Otter Garden Centres in Ottery St Mary has been solved after eagle eyed team members spotted an unexpected visitor.

It began after a large Koi carp went missing from the onsite pond in the plant area. Two days’ later, another disappeared. After a third vanished, part of its remains were found hidden nearby.

Otter’s fish expert Jim Walker...

Exeter-based broadband company, Jurassic Fibre, has helped raise money for Devon charity Hospiscare by helping them swap Christmas trees for cash.

The award-winning telecoms company, which is currently delivering gigabit connectivity to overlooked communities across the South West, supported Hospiscare by volunteering staff members and vans to assist in the charity’s Christmas Tree...

Lose weight, do more exercise and cut back on spending, are three of the top New Year resolutions.But with most falling by the wayside within seven weeks, a Devon college is hoping it can help buck the trend well into 2022. South Devon College has hundreds of health courses on offer to lure people away from the biscuit tin and swap chocolates for chin ups.

“We have a course to suit...

A Dartmoor woodland has been given a tidy-up thanks to a team of dedicated and enthusiastic volunteers. Working with Dartmoor National Park’s Rangers Ella Briens and Ethan Parsons and Dartmoor Headwaters Project Officer Kerry Smith, the group spent a Sunday morning removing tree guards from a native woodland in the Dean Burn valley near Buckfastleigh. Seventeen volunteers joined Ella, Ethan...

A total of six million recycling and waste collections – weighing more than 48,000 tonnes - were made in East Devon last year.

Crews collected the equivalent weight of 4,000 London double decker buses, through a whopping 4.5million recycling collections and 1.5 million waste collections.

As well as this a further 300,000 green waste collections were made.

This...